Nov. 18, 2013
Want a respite from our typical dry articles on Mexican Immigration law, and Aduana Law, normally chock-full-o’ internet website facts and dry citations of Mexican law? As a nice change of pace, we are happy to offer you the first hand story of a fine reader – who just (successfully?) went through the hoops of dealing with that wicked combination of older-but-much-loved TIP vehicle plus Residente Permanente …. With no further ado, here is one Yucatecan ex-pat’s story:

TALE OF AN ILLEGAL CAR
We came to Mexico to stay in the first part of October 2011. We drove in and we managed to make a lot of mistakes.

This story is about just one of the errors we made, our car, a 2005 Dodge Caravan.

I made the silly assumption that once the car was 8 years old it would be easy to Nationalize. Well, the first error was … continue reading here …

Ok, Canadian story in Quintana Roo. Brought our car into Mexico in 2008 and it has been in Puerto Morelos QR ever since. We have just sold our casa there so won’t need the car any more. What to do with it? It has Canadian plates, and the price to “nationalize” it was more than the car is worth. How do we sell, give or dispose of this car….it would never make the trip back to Canada.

Hi Darmstrong,
You have a few options.
~ Sell it to a foreigner living in Mexico who also has a Residente Temporal visa. Complete the sale at the Belize/Mexico border. Cancel your old TIP, and have them get their own TIP.

~ Sell it to someone in Belize. Some of the business owners/managers in the Free Zone of Corazol buy our foreign cars.

~ Junk it. Take it to the Belize border, surrender the TIP. Drive back into Mexico without a TIP – as Quintana Roo is a free zone for foreigners to bring in their foreign-plated cars. Sell it for scrap. Be sure that it has been destroyed. ~ Formal rules say that foreign-plated cars in Q.Roo must have current registration (back in their home state/province).